IF Leeds city Council had not actively opposed the development of LBA for over ten year and IF the A1 – M1 link had been aligned along the Pudsey – Dishforth route, LBA might have been in a substantially better situation today. The Airport is now, to some extent, paying the price for those decisions.
What those decisions would not have changed is the abject location of the site [from a geographic and aviation perspective]. At 680feet amsl in these latitudes with a big dipper style runway aligned across the prevailing wind; massive earth works required for each and every construction project [particularly aircraft movement areas]; abysmal surface connections [arguably the worst of any UK airport]; limited navaids in the Rwy14 direction, it is difficult to envisage the 7 million plus passenger throughput forecast by the Dft.
The £90m cost of a rail link [talked about for some 40 years] makes the realisation of such a link improbable, particularly in the present financial circumstances. Moreover, as mentioned in an earlier post, something of the order of 10 million airport passengers are required before a rail link becomes a viable addition. Manchester had well into the teens of passengers before the rail link was planned and not only that, the rail companies have provided direct services, to and from MAN, to/from a wide range of northern locations. Such rail route development to/from LBA is difficult, although I accept not impossible, to foresee. It appears to me that a significant proportion of passengers using such a link would be required to change trains at Leeds City……..in which case it might be better to change to a train going to MAN, where a better range of air services is provided.
As West Yorkshire born and bred, it greaves me to say this but LBA is a compromise in every respect. Development only continued in the 1980s because the local politicians couldn’t find an alternative site offering the desirable qualities; the nearest location chosen was Thorne Waste; there was also speculation about the use of RAF Church Fenton as a civil airport, neither being exactly adjacent to a substantial part of the West Yorkshire populous. The advent of RAF Finningley as a civil airport, quite close to Thorne Waste, has not proved particularly popular with the West Yorkshire folks.
I suspect that it will be difficult to justify spending/investing any substantial amounts of money [public or private] on further development at LBA. This is probably the reason why LBA has always generated a considerable amount of discussion and debate but not a lot in terms of actual infrastructure development, hence its present passenger numbers after some 60 years of civil use.
Now if they had been able to extend the old Rwy10/28………………
H49